There’s an old commercial for Westwood College that’s become something of a running joke in the video game world. Two young men sit at a couch, hammering away at PlayStation controllers. A woman walks in. “Hey guys, finish testing that game yet?” she asks. “I’ve got another one I need designed.” »7/27/15 1:00pm 7/27/15 1:00pm

For such an important topic, it’s a shame that we can’t ever seem to have a real discussion about video game piracy. Any attempt normally goes down like this: people downloading games are painted as criminals, publishers trying to stop them are portrayed as monsters, everyone sticks to this division and nothing ever… »7/09/15 9:25am 7/09/15 9:25am

In 2009, a strange Facebook account appeared out of nowhere and friended people en-masse. The name on the account was Junko Junsui, and she had a message for anyone willing to listen. »6/10/15 3:00pm 6/10/15 3:00pm

You only get one chance to make a first impression, and for many games, that happens at E3. The annual mega show is nearly upon us, and developers are spending days and nights putting together flashy demos to convince us to open our wallets. What’s real? What’s fake? Maybe both? I asked some developers to find out. »6/09/15 5:00pm 6/09/15 5:00pm

In February of 2011, fresh off nine months’ worth of 80-hour work weeks, Jessica Chavez took a pair of scissors to her hair. She’d been working so hard on a video game—14 hours a day, six days a week—that she hadn’t even had a spare hour to go to the barber. »5/15/15 1:00pm 5/15/15 1:00pm

I spent most of my life religious—Christian, to be specific. Semi-recently, however, that small part of me died. Or maybe I killed it myself. I know one thing for sure, though: video games had a hand in it.»2/27/15 2:05pm 2/27/15 2:05pm

Minutes after I walked through a metal detector—and some time before she was flocked by well-wishers at the best-attended gaming lecture I've ever been to at New York University—I recently listened to the media critic Anita Sarkeesian describe eight things she'd like to see changed in video games. »2/26/15 1:15pm 2/26/15 1:15pm

"You know what Peter Molyneux's like," an ex-22Cans employee told me while trying to sum up the infamous designer's tendency to make enormous promises and then just kinda... forget about them. "You try to hold onto his words and they slip through your fingers." »2/13/15 4:35pm 2/13/15 4:35pm

Four years ago, an account named "PewDiePie" uploaded a video to YouTube. It was about Minecraft. The video featured what sounded like a young man laughing heartily at an unlucky zombie that had gotten stuck in a tree. The commentary wasn't in English—it was in Swedish. »12/19/14 4:30pm 12/19/14 4:30pm

Seven and a half years ago, one of the most acclaimed pro wrestlers of all time, Chris Benoit, murdered his wife and his seven-year-old son. He then killed himself. Today, some gamers want to play as Chris Benoit in a wrestling video game and keep trying to make that happen. The company behind the game doesn't… »12/12/14 1:00pm 12/12/14 1:00pm